The last ‘doll lady,’ who uses tiny tools for teaching tolerance, is saying goodbye

Share this:

Selma Bukstein sets up the dolls she uses to teach tolerance. The historical figures include Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Helen Keller.

Taryn Hough, who is making a documentary on Selma Bukstein and her quest to keep the "Heroes of Democracy" program going.

Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

After her presentation in Laguna Woods, Selma Bukstein, 90, left, puts away the dolls she uses for her "Heroes of Democracy" as a youngster watches.

Documentary filmmaker Taryn Hough, left, films Selma Bukstein, 90, as she sets up the dolls she uses for her "Heroes of Democracy" presentation.

After her "Heroes of Democracy" presentation, Selma Bukstein, 90, right, talks with those in attendance.

Selma Bukstein, 90, has been teaching tolerance through the "Heroes of Democracy" program for 59 years. In an effort to keep the program alive, she is trying to find people interested in continuing her work.

Selma Bukstein, 90, right, hands out bookmarkers to members of the audience before starting her presentation of "Heroes of Democracy."

Selma Bukstein, 90, holds a doll representing George Washington Carver during her "Heroes of Democracy" presentation in Laguna Woods.

Taryn Hough, left, follows Selma Bukstein, 90, center, around as she gives out some information on the "Heroes of Democracy" program after a presentation in Laguna Woods.

Taryn Hough, left, gets Selma Bukstein wired up with a microphone before Bukstein begins her "Heroes of Democracy" presentation to adults in Laguna Woods. Hough is making a documentary on Bukstein, 90, and her quest to keep the program going.

Selma Bukstein, 90, explains the U.S. system of government during her presentation of "Heroes of Democracy for an audience of adults in Laguna Woods.

Taryn Hough films a presentation given by Selma Bukstein of the "Heroes of Democracy" program. Hough is making a documentary of Bukstein's quest to keep the program she has been teaching for 59 years going,

At left, Selma Bukstein, right, with a sampling of Dolls for Democracy in 1960.

For decades, Selma Bukstein has conveyed a simple message with her “Dolls for Democracy,” seven Barbie-sized figurines – each intricately carved from clay – that include the likes of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Helen Keller and Albert Einstein.

Like the dolls themselves, that message is one that harks back to gentler times: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

Bukstein joined the program a few years after it got rolling in 1951. At its height in the ’50s and ’60s, about 2,000 doll ladies around the country were visiting schools to spread the lesson of tolerance.

Over the past 10 years or so, however, schools have lost interest. In recent months, the Laguna Woods resident has left messages for principals at dozens of local schools, only to never hear back.

“I’ve called and called and called,” Bukstein said. “I’ve sent letters with CDs for over a dollar in postage per envelope. I’ve gone to PTAs. I have run up against a wall.”

Now she is on a mission to convert others to her cause – a journey that has attracted Irvine documentarian Taryn Hough, who for two years has been aiming her camera at Bukstein.

Hough learned about Bukstein from her parents, also Laguna Woods homeowners.

“It’s as much about her efforts to reignite the program as it is about the dolls,” she said. “Selma does not want this program to die with her.”

On a recent Tuesday afternoon in the retirement community’s Clubhouse Seven, the indefatigable Bukstein loaded a table with cookies, brownies, muffins, zucchini bread and cupcakes – all of which she baked herself.

She was pulling out all the stops to attract an audience to her pep talk.

It worked. About 60 people – twice what she expected – arrived to nibble goodies and watch her demonstration.

First, Bukstein gave a little background about herself and the program. The mother of five boys joined up when she lived in Missouri, epicenter of Dolls for Democracy.

The Kansas City chapter of B’nai B’rith Women, now called Jewish Women International, helped initiate the program, Bukstein explained. A local artist, Cecil Weeks, sculpted the original dolls.

Then Bukstein put on a performance as she would do for children, discussing in simplified terms the challenges overcome by each of the heroes her dolls embody.

She proceeded with a brief lesson about the Constitution, the three branches of government – and the “very smart men” who wrote the nation’s laws.

Next, she introduced her dolls, one by one, extolling their individual virtues.

“Emancipation Proclamation – can you say that three times?” she asked while holding up Lincoln.

All of these heroes had a “problem” – be it the color of their skin, their religion, their ethnicity, a physical handicap or an impoverished childhood, she said.

“Prejudice is when you don’t like someone you don’t even know,” Bukstein said. “These are all people who believed that every human deserves respect.”

When she returned to speaking to the crowd as adults, she made an emotional plea for taking part in soothing “the hatred infecting our country.”

Jane Greer, professor of English and women’s studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, discovered the dolls in 2009 while working on a project at the State Historical Society Research Center.

“An archivist said to me, ‘Do you want to see one of the coolest things we have?’” Greer recalled. “And she brought out a large suitcase and started pulling out these dolls.”

The two women lost themselves “playing” with the dolls and admiring their exquisite detail.

“Carrie Nation has a tiny hatchet in her hand; Helen Keller is holding a scroll in Braille; George Washington Carver grasps peanut blossoms,” Greer marveled.

Afterward, she delved into the history of the dolls – mostly to satisfy her own fascination with them rather than as an academic pursuit. She shared her findings about Dolls for Democracy at a conference last year.

“The movement came out of the Holocaust and McCarthyism as a way to prevent those horrors from happening again,” Greer said. “It now might seem sweetly naïve.”

As important, Dolls for Democracy “provided women leadership roles at a time there were fewer opportunities for them,” Greer added.

Greer, who was unaware of Bukstein and her cause, said she is not surprised that schools seem indifferent to the program.

“It’s what’s happened to our schools due to the testing environment: ‘That’s lovely, but it’s not going to be on the test,’” she said.

Hough recently arranged for Bukstein to visit a private elementary school in Chino – largely to capture interaction with students for her documentary, which she plans to enter in film festivals next year.

“The teacher warned us that this was a bunch of squirmy kids, but they were mesmerized by Selma,” Hough said. “She is incredibly magnetic and full of life.”

At the conclusion of Bukstein’s exhibit in Laguna Woods, enthralled attendees eagerly offered ideas about how to spread the word and attract interest:

Contact Oprah Winfrey (she has); get on the Laguna Woods cable TV show (she has, numerous times); send videos to school administrators (she has); write to The New York Times (she has).

Some in the audience recommended she go high-tech – video games and such.

“It has to be done in a different modality for today’s kids,” one woman opined.

Bukstein responded that she is open to suggestions and will host a brainstorming session at her house.

But at the end of the day, what she really needs are more doll ladies.

“Who knows if I am going to light a fire?” Bukstein said. “It’s my passion – not theirs. I’ve learned not to be disappointed.”

For more information on Dolls for Democracy, email selmabukstein@gmail.com.

After majoring in journalism at the University of Texas, Susan Christian Goulding got her start as a copy editor and reporter at the (late, great) Los Angeles Herald Examiner. She then worked at the (late, great) Santa Monica Outlook and the Daily Breeze as a features editor, writer and columnist. She moved to the Orange County bureau of the Los Angeles Times as a features and business writer. After that five-year stint, she worked as a correspondent for People magazine and a regular freelancer for Readers Digest while raising her two kids, Erin and Matt. During this time, she also wrote a weekly column for the Daily Breeze. Next, she gave up all possibility of free time and earned a teaching credential and masters at UCI. She taught English for four often rewarding and always challenging years in Compton, then at LMU and El Camino College. Missing journalism, Goulding circled back to her original career last year, joining the Orange County Register as a reporter. She also enjoys her return to column writing for the newspaper's OC Home magazine.